Getting your feet wet.

   Every time you are about to do something, you generally like to start slowly. LIke getting into a pool. First you put your toes in to see how it goes then you jump in. In my regard, I dove headfirst. Cannonball. Boom. Welcome to China!
    I think it all really hit me when I walked out of the international flights area at Beijing Capital to that area where everyone waits for people to arrive and hold signs with names on them. It was like red carpet treatment. Everyone (important to note all asian) is starting at you..are you John Steckleburg, Joan Matheson, John Doe?
    I managed a cab to my campus, followed some poorly translated signs, registered for my room and finallyr eached the door...to my prison cell:

    I kid you not. There might as well have been steel bars on the windows. I may appreciate it later in the semester when they would have prevented me from jumping out of my 3rd story window. You can vaguely see my new roommate, Sho something, the closest thing to a BLue Bullet. He hails from Kobe, Japan and is a nice guy, speaks decent English (thank god), but snores like I've never heard. Josh Tom gets put to shame. Hence, why I might jump out the window in the future.
    So when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade..right? WRONG! If you want orange juice go make some damn oranges. After waiting through 4 hours of lines to register, pay for housing, pay for insurance, pay for tuition, none of which I actually had to do because of my scholarship I went to the International Expert Office, aka the office where housing is taken care of (makes no sense to me either). Registration I might add is quite accurately described as a clusterfuck. Imagine 200+ people in a small room going through 7 tables that are not organized numerical but instead like a 7 point star so only lord knows what the hell is going on.
    I'm at the housing registration office and the woman is telling me there are no rooms available to switch to. I patiently give her my information, get put on a list, and will be given a phone call when a room opens. F* that. I need to take action. Next day, today, I come up with my plan. I find out you could have registered ahead online to book a room. I use this information to pretend I am being looked over, I registered during the summer, and I want my room. Damn, stubborn Chinese. She doesn't budge. I'm getting desperate. This is heightened by a quick memory/vision of the public bathroom down the hall with squatting not sit down toilets. I used to live in a castle for college, literally. This won't do. I pull out the big guns. How much money does she want? Amazingly she refuses. I tell her all the Chinese government officials are doing it to. She doens't budge. Is the US getting propaganda or soemthing? I thought everyone here was susceptible to bribes..I leave dejected, to my closet, where I am writing from now. My only answer is tomorrow I offer more money and to take her on a date, perhaps be her American boyfriend. It's all I have left. I can't prairie dog much longer.

Until next time..